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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 4, 2017 2:18:49 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men #276 "Double Death"Cover Date: May, 1991 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Jim Lee Team: Wolverine, Psylocke, Jubilee, Gambit, Banshee, Forge & Storm (Professor Xaiver) Villain/s: Manacle, The Host/Skrulls ("Professor X, Corsair, Hepzibah, Ch'od, Raza, Cr'reee Psylocke, and Lord Chamberlain/New Xaiver") Guest Stars: Deathbird, Lila Cheney, Empress Lilandra Neramani, The Imperial Guard (Gladiator & Oracle) Official Plot: In the Royal Palace on Chandilar : Gambit tries to keep Jubilee quiet while they both hide from Professor X. It has just been revealed to them that Xavier mentally controlled Gladiator and Oracle and is now using them to take out his vengeance on Deathbird. He uses Gladiator to rip Deathbird's wings from her back and as he is about to have her killed, Gambit and Jubilee decide to break up the party. Gambit distracts Gladiator with a blast of cards; allowing Deathbird to strike at Xavier. Jubilee takes out the remaining guards and is then stopped by a mind-blast from Professor X. Luckily, Deathbird is able to take out Gladiator and she, Gambit and Jubilee are able to make a run for it. They find Lila Cheney tied up and free her as more soldiers arrive. Lila teleports Deathbird away, while Gambit and Jubilee are left to fight for themselves. They blast through the palace, alerting both Wolverine and the rest of the X-Men to their escape. As everyone arrives at the site of the explosion, they find Gladiator having "protected" Professor X from harm against Deathbird's attack. They are all happy that Professor X is safe. All save Wolverine, who suddenly attacks and kills Xavier. Psylocke quickly renders Wolverine unconscious. Suddenly, Lila Cheney and Deathbird teleport back and grab some of the X-Men and then teleport away just as fast. The Lord Chamberlain arrives and sends Lilandra off so they can deal with Xavier's body humanely. He disintegrates the body and then turns to the Starjammers to capture Deathbird and the renegade X-Men. Meanwhile, on Epsilon Seikosha IX: Deathbird reveals that she has stolen the X-Men away to help her in her fight against this Professor X impostor. She says that he has destroyed the P!ndyr and all inhabitants of this planet. The X-Men look through the rubble and agree to help her against her enemy. The Starjammers arrive at the planet and Deathbird suddenly has Lila teleport her away unexpectedly. This leaves Forge, along with Storm and Banshee to take on the Starjammers alone as they prepare to attack the Starjammer. Back on Chandilar: Jubilee and Lilandra are seen under Psylocke's control and learn that they are to become pawns in a larger game. Jubliee is stripped and given to Manacle who binds her along to other Starjammers in a type of web-matrix that holds them all together. It is revealed that the Lord Chamberlain is really a renegade leader of a cadre of War Skrulls, named the Host. They plan to control Lilandra, and thus the Shi'ar Empire, to do their will. The Skrull Prime transforms into another 'Professor X' and then tricks Lilandra into thinking he is the true Xavier. The true Professor X is seen bound in the matrix and begins plotting his escape and revenge. Brodie's View:I know I didn't say it in the last review, as I had two whole stories to talk about, but now I'm down to the major one, so, I can freely say that I LOVE the fact that the Skrulls are being used as the villains here. We've dealt with quite a few alien races during this run, but the Skrulls have been the one race notably absent from the X-books, as I guess they were always seen as more of a Fantastic Four/Avengers problem. However, we finally get some Skrull action in UNCANNY, and a pretty kick ass story to boot. Long story short, at some point, this group of War Skrulls captured Xaiver and the Starjammers (Including the Shi'ar ruler, Lilandra), and basically changed their shape to look like the heroes, while replicating Xaiver's ability to control Lilandra, and thus spread their rule across Shi'ar space, under the guise of official Shi'ar business. However, there was one major piece of business that needed to be taken down to make this happen; taking down Deathbird and the Imperial Guard, and they basically manipulated Lila Cheney into bringing the X-Men, which helped them accomplish that (in the last issue). Now they got seemingly what they want, and they get to capture and replicate the X-Men as well, which could lead to a potential conquest of Earth (They, the Skrulls, would actually attempt something like this again in the late 2000's Marvel-wide crossover, SECRET INVASION). They do get a few hiccups in their plan here, as Gambit and Jubilee wind up witnessing their torturing Deathbird, and end up freeing her (Although, Jubilee is captured in the process), and then Wolverine figures out that "Xaiver" isn't Xaiver, and guts him, forcing the Lord Chamberlain to change his form to keep the ruse going. Logan is taken down by a Skrull posing as Psylocke (as she was taken down last issue), and captured. This ends up leaving Storm, Forge, Banshee, Gambit, Lila, and Deathbird as the only ones left Unskrullish, and able to fight off this Skrull take over. We'll definitely see that in the next issue, as we wrap this whole storyline up, and then we get to the final Claremont storyline on UNCANNY until his 2000 comeback, dealing with one major loose plot thread left hanging; one that's been building, in many ways, since #250 (and before), the Shadow King, which we get a little set up for at the end of next issue. GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 4, 2017 21:20:04 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men #277 "Free Charley" Cover Date: June, 1991 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Jim Lee Team: Wolverine, Psylocke, Jubilee, Gambit, Banshee, Forge & Storm (Professor Xaiver) Villain/s: The Host/Skrulls ("Professor X, Corsair, Hepzibah, Ch'od, Raza, Cr'reee Psylocke, Gladiator, Oracle, Wolverine, Jubilee and Lord Chamberlain/New Xaiver"), Colossus (Possessed by The Shadow King) Guest Stars: Deathbird, Lila Cheney, Empress Lilandra Neramani, Stevie Hunter, Starjammers (Corsair, Ch'od, Hepzibah, Raza) Official Plot: The X-Men fight the Starjammers, who are Warskrulls in disguise. Inside their ship, Gambit helps the X-Men, while Lila Cheney and Deathbird locate the Warskrulls' matrix. Charles Xavier mentally guides Lila to teleport the rest of the X-Men into that chamber where another big fight erupts. At first, Storm, Forge, Banshee, and Gambit hold their ground against Gladiator and Skrull versions of Wolverine, Psylocke and Jubilee; but are taken down by the Skrull Xavier. During the fight, the matrix control was damaged and the real Xavier is freed and defeats the Skrulls. Deathbird leaves and Lilandra get the throne back. Xavier goes back to Earth with the X-Men to battle the Shadow King. Meanwhile, in Salem Center, Colossus (possessed by Shadow King) attacks Stevie Hunter. Brodie's View:In this, the last official Claremont/Lee team up issue on UNCANNY ( ), we have the wrap up of the whole "Skrull" issue that has been building since a little before THE X-TINCTION AGENDA, and fully kicked in right after it. This basically means "The Big Battle" between the remaining Unskrullish X-Men (Storm, Forge, Gambit, and Banshee), Deathbird, and Lila Cheney (Who little do the Skrulls realize, is being mentally guided by the real Professor X, who along with a bunch of other characters, is trapped and being used for information/copying of abilities while their Skrull counterparts are running around, trying to take down the last few that stand against them) and, of course, the Skrulls, and the various characters they're controlling (Lilandra and the Imperial Guard). The free X-men are actually able to take out some of the Skrull counterparts, but are dropped by the Skrull Xaiver. However, like a typical villain, the lead Skrull doesn't realize that Xaiver has been able to free himself, and he ends up dropping his doppelganger, saving the day. With all this Skrull business taken care of, and Xaiver officially deciding to finally return to Earth with his "children," bringing us one step closer to our new "Status Quo," there is one more order of business that needs taken care of; the Shadow King. And just as Xaiver is realizing what is happening in space, we get TSK making his major move on Earth, as he sends a possessed Colossus to kill Stevie Hunter for a yet undisclosed reason. This will, of course, continue in our next issue, as we have one last little Crossover to handle; between UNCANNY and X-FACTOR, as we will eventually see everyone band together against The Shadow King, and after defeating him (He puts up a hell of a fight though, taking quite a bit from Charles Xaiver before he is downed), we will move 100% into the status quo we find ourselves in at the end of this run. GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 4, 2017 23:31:05 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men #278"The Battle of Muir Island"Cover Date: July, 1991 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Paul Smith Team: Wolverine, Psylocke, Jubilee, Gambit, Banshee, Forge & Storm (Professor Xaiver) Villain/s: The Shadow King (Controlling: Lian Shen, Moria MacTaggert, Colossus, Rogue, Stevie Hunter, Guido/Strong Guy, Multiple Man, Amanda Sefton, Siryn, Legion, Sharon Friedlander, and Tom Corsi) Guest Stars: W.H.O (and Brigadier Sandy Stuart) Official Plot: The Shadow King and Dr. Lian Shen watch various forms of hate taking place across the world, before the Shadow King vows that he will destroy Xavier and the X-Men once and for all. At the WHO headquarters, Brigadier Alysande Stuart is all but helpless as an intruder breaks into the hangar where Excalibur’s Blackbird jet is kept. The full-armored intruder takes down various personnel, and displays some psionic powers, though limited due to the static on the psychic plane that the Shadow King is currently causing. Once a safe distance from the WHO, the intruder takes off his armor - revealing himself as Professor X, who then meets up with the X-Men - Wolverine, Storm, Banshee, Forge, Psylocke, Jubilee and Gambit. They discuss recent events, and plan to check in on Muir Island. Currently at Muir Island, Dr. Moira MacTaggert, various members of the Muir Island X-Men - Amanda Sefton, Siryn, Multiple Man and Legion - and other mutants residing at Muir Island are watching Rogue and Guido battle in the Arena, Muir Island’s very own Danger Room. Rogue eventually defeats Guido, much to the pleasure of several of the others, though Rogue is somewhat confused by the barbarity of the Arena. Later, in the shower room, Rogue still has confused feelings, before she is confronted by the Shadow King, and they kiss. The X-Men arrive near Muir Island, and Xavier drops them off, while he takes the Blackbird to New York. Banshee makes his way through Moira’s private home and recalls recent events, while Psylocke finds all of Muir Island’s residents at the Arena. Storm and Forge, linked telepathically thanks to Psylocke, discuss the Arena, while Forge discovers a large amount of power being diverted to a lower level holding pen on Muir Island. Suddenly, Storm is confronted by the deranged Legion, who brutally attacks her. Psylocke is rendered unconscious due to the backlash. Banshee sees Storm fall towards the ocean, and goes to rescue her, when he is attacked by his daughter, Siryn. Confused, Banshee is rendered unconscious. Gambit is confronted by the Multiple Man, while Wolverine eventually finds Rogue - they begin to fight, though Jubilee attempts to break them up, until another Amanda Sefton of the Muir Island X-Men attacks her. At the ruins of the X-Men’s Mansion in Salem Center, Xavier is upset at the destruction caused by Mr. Sinister, when a car speeds towards him, with someone on top of it, then crashes into the pillars at the front of the ruined Mansion. The car goes up in flames, and Xavier finds the driver to be his ally Stevie Hunter, who was fleeing the Shadow King. The Shadow King shows Xavier an astral image of the X-Men all taken down by the Muir Island X-Men, before the other person emerges from the flaming car - Colossus, possessed by the Shadow King, and charged with ripping Stevie Hunter apart, before doing the same to Xavier! Brodie's View:Well, here we go with the last full on issue of UNCANNY Chris Claremont would write until the year 2000 ( ), and we get an added blast from the past with the guest penciling of Mr. Paul Smith, who did a very memorable stint on the book in the early/mid 80's. This is the beginning of the end game long in the making, at least where it concerns The Shadow King, who has been amassing power since the early #250's. However, this quickly becomes a different story, as not only have the X-Men reunited (or at least a new team), but they are once again being led by the man that once defeated/destroyed TSK when he was human, Charles Xaiver, who has returned with the team after their adventures in space. That being said, things aren't going to be easy for the Good Guys, for as we see in this issue, not only does TSK have control over Muir Island (And has turned it into a very Lord of the Flies type of society, complete with gladiator arena) and quite a few powerful mutants there (Including now Rogue and Colossus, the last of which he sends after Stevie Hunter and then Xaiver himself), but after trying to investigate what had happened on Muir, the new team of X-Men (With the exception of Forge) are taken out, which means they are now under TSK's control as well. Jeez, talk about walking into a hopeless situation, and in the next issue, it gets worse, although, we do start to see a bit of a glimmer of hope. Towards the end of this short Crossover (With X-FACTOR, which will come into play tomorrow), we will basically see a massive gathering of mutants, with the exceptions of EXCALIBUR (Whose jet Xaiver steals at the beginning of this issue) and X-FORCE (The former NEW MUTANTS, who have started their mission of hitting villains before they can cause trouble), and from that huge army of mutants, we get new versions of both the X-Men and X-Factor, which will pretty much lead us to the end of this run. As I said before, though, this is basically the end of Claremont writing entirely his own story, as Marvel Editor Bob Harras would force Claremont to co-write with Jim Lee and others, which Chris would rightfully see as his being pushed from the X-Books, much in the same way his friend, Louise Simonson, had been recently pushed off of NEW MUTANTS and X-FACTOR by Rob Liefield and others. However, even though the end of this short story will be Claremont free, I will review them, as he at least did start this story. It must have sucked for him to see other writers get to end the story he took a good deal of time building up. Probably explains why he would vanish from Marvel for half a decade after his run was up. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 5, 2017 1:11:25 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men #279 "Bad to the Bone: Muir Island Saga Part 2"Cover Date: August, 1991 Writer: Chris Claremont/Jim Lee (Plot) Fabian Nicieza (Dialogue) Artist: Andy Kubert Team: Wolverine, Psylocke, Jubilee, Gambit, Banshee, Forge & Storm (Professor Xaiver) Villain/s: The Shadow King (Controlling: Lian Shen, Jacob Reisz, Gambit, Rogue, Colossus, and Jubilee) Guest Stars: Stevie Hunter, Colossus Official Plot: Under the mental control of the Shadow King, Colossus chases Xavier and Stevie Hunter through the ruins of the Xavier Institute. It comes to a showdown between Xavier and the Shadow King in the Danger Room, and Xavier realizes that he can only free Colossus by destroying the artist Peter Nicholas personality in Colossus head; though it hurts him as Piotr actually was happy as an artist. On Muir Island, only Forge remained free from the Shadow King’s influence and the other X-Men are hunting him. Yet Forge is able to use a neurosynaptic scrambler on Wolverine and when being discovered by Rogue, he knocks her unconscious with a gun. The Shadow King realizes that he needs a new host body, as that of FBI agent Jacob Reisz is beginning to deteriorate. Xavier, Stevie and Colossus witness a riot in Salem Center which is actually the Shadow King’s doing, they decide to call in X-Factor. Brodie's View:With this issue, we welcome two names that will play a pretty sizable role in the main X-Books throughout the 90's; Fabian Nicieza, who would end up playing the Pick Up Artist to a few of the X-Books during this era, as he also basically took the scripting skills on NEW MUTANTS when Louise Simonson left the book, and then took the book over completely once Liefield split. He does the same for this storyline, and eventually will get control of the 2nd X-MEN book (once Jim Lee leaves) as well. The other name that will play a big part on the art side of things is Andy Kubert, son of legendary artist, Joe Kubert. He and his brother, Adam will take quite a bit of the artistic slack on the X-Books left by Lee and the other artists that would split by late 92 to form IMAGE COMICS. Nicieza and Kubert do a very nice job with picking up the slack on UNCANNY (and this storyline), as Claremont and Lee prepare for the launch of the second X-MEN book (which would be Claremont's swan song). Continuing the whole Shadow King wrap up story, we get Xaiver and Stevie Hunter facing down a Shadow King controlled Colossus, and after finally removing the mind controlling mutant from Pitor's mind (By destroying the Peter Nicholas persona he had after coming out of the Siege Perilous with), the three realize that with a good many of the X-Men team sent over to Muir Island compromised (we'll get back to this in a second), he has no choice but to call in his original X-Men, AKA X-Factor. Meanwhile, on Muir Island, we see Forge (who managed to escape being put under TSK's influence) being hunted by Wolverine and Rogue (among others), who he is able to take down and free of TSK, allowing a small (but growing) group of X-Men to slowly begin to fight TSK from the inside, as Xaiver, Colossus, and X-Factor approach from the outside. We will end up continuing this tomorrow, as X-Factor does indeed get involved (Although, under their own heavy burden, as Cyclops has just had to send his son, Nathan Christopher, into the future to be cured of the techno organic virus given to him by Apocalypse. Little does Scott know that his son did indeed live, and has come back into his present already ), and we see more of a group of Shadow King free X-Men forming, in order to take down this Big Bad before he can spread his evil web over the entire planet. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 5, 2017 21:17:56 GMT -5
X-Factor #69"Class Reunion: Muir Island Saga Part 3"Cover Date: August, 1991 Writer: Fabian Nicieza Artist: Whilce Portacio Team: Cyclops, Jean Grey/Marvel Girl, Archangel, Beast, Iceman Villain/s: The Shadow King (Controlling: Jacob Reisz, Gambit, Psylocke, Jubilee, Moria MacTaggert, Siryn, Multiple Man, Legion, Polaris, & Banshee) Guest Stars: Colossus,Wolverine, Psylocke, Jubilee, Gambit, Banshee, Forge & Storm (Professor Xaiver), Mystique (posing as Val Cooper), Colonel Vazhin, Moria MacTaggert, Siryn, Multiple Man, Legion, & Polaris Official Plot: On Muir Island the Shadow King has taken over the minds of the most X-Men. Forge was able to design a device that frees him from the mental hold, and he is able to use it on Rogue, Wolverine and Banshee too. Sean knows the extent of the Shadow King’s plan. He psionically causes world wide waves of hatred and prejudice, that will bundle in the form of Lorna Dane. Being a catalyst for negative emotions, she has been made his nexus between the physical and the astral plane, and he is getting stronger by the minute. In Washington, Val Cooper and Xavier call in X-Factor for a rescue mission. They secretly approach Muir in a submarine, but aboard is also FBI agent Reisz, the Shadow King’s human host. When X-Factor invades the island, they are held in check by Legion, under the King’s control. On the submarine, Reisz starts to strangle Xavier, who pleads Val Cooper to help, yet she is under the King’s control too – or so he thought. She suddenly shape-shifts, revealing to be the believed killed Mystique and shoots Reisz trapping the Shadow King on the astral plane. X-Factor and X-Men wonder how to free Lorna Dane from the nexus gate to prevent the Shadow King from acquiring a new host. Caught in the dilemma that separating Lorna from the device might kill her, they hesitate too long and the Shadow King takes over Legion as his next host. Brodie's View:While Forge recruits Wolverine, Rogue, and Banshee (who he is able to free from the Shadow King's influence) to try and free more X-Men from TSK's influence, as they prepare to try and stop the King himself, Charles Xaiver, Val Cooper, X-Factor, and secretly, the King himself (In his Jacob Reisz form) sneak towards Muir Island in a sub. As X-Factor invade the island, and find themselves fighting Legion, Reisz makes his major play, attempting to kill Xaiver, while Cooper, who he assumes he has under control, watches. However, in a major swerve, Cooper morphs into Mystique, who has been deep undercover as Cooper since her "death" at Cooper's hand quite a while ago. Mystique destroys TSK's human form, trapping him on the astral plane. However, TSK still has an anchor in Polaris, who X-Factor try to free from being his nexus, without killing her. However, TSK takes advantage of that hesitation to jump instead into the very active, and more dangerous, Legion (AKA Xaiver's son), and suddenly, the mutant group finds themselves in a great deal as trouble. As we approach the end of this whole storyline (which concludes later in the pages of UNCANNY), we find that Fabian Nicieza is fully writing things now, as Claremont and Lee are writing/drawing what will end up being the end of Claremont's run, and therefore, this run of reviews. The final part, which as I said before, will be our last issue of UNCANNY, as #281 will officially signal a new era with an all new writing/artistic team (Actually the artist of this particular issue, Whilce Portacio, takes over the art details on UNCANNY as of #281, and will help to introduce the next Time Traveling character with a gun, to follow the highly popular Cable, and that's Bishop), and I won't be covering that. However, in that next part, we see the SK Free X-Men and X-Factor trying to free the other X-Men/Muir Island people (and battle Legion), while Xaiver fights The King himself on the astral plane. It's a battle that will end us costing Xaiver dearly, and one that will forever change the status quo and destinies of both The X-Men and X-Factor. We will then get one more X-FACTOR issue, as Peter David delivers a nice epilogue of all of this, and then, we come to the End. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 5, 2017 23:15:28 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men #280"One Step Back, Two Steps Forward: Muir Island Saga Part 4"Cover Date: September, 1991 Writer: Fabian Nicieza Artist: Andy Kubert & Steven Butler Team: Wolverine, Psylocke, Jubilee, Gambit, Banshee, Forge, Colossus & Storm (Professor Xaiver) Villain/s: The Shadow King (Controlling: Legion, Moria MacTaggert, Siryn, Multiple Man, Guide/Strong Guy, & Polaris) Guest Stars: X-Factor (Cyclops, Jean Grey/Marvel Girl, Archangel, Beast & Iceman), Col. Alexei Vazhin, and Mystique Official Plot: Xavier inspects the ruins of Muir Island and finds X-Factor and the free X-Men held in a telekinetic field by Legion, who has been made the Shadow King’s new host body. The Professor and the Shadow King fight while Storm, who had remained hidden after her defeat by Legion, zaps him with lightning, causing him to lose control over the telekinetic field and retreat. Xavier and the free mutants come up with a plan. Xavier will engage the Shadow King on the astral plane, with Jean anchoring him and Storm, Cyclops, Colossus and Archangel shielding them from physical attacks, while Beast, Banshee, Iceman, Forge and Rogue will enter the lab complex to disrupt the Shadow King’s nexus. Xavier is not faring very well on the astral plane, as his astral injuries all show on his physical body too. First his legs are broken and he suffers more injuries. The lab team has to fight the mutants still influenced by the Shadow King, and many personal issues hinder them, like Banshee having to go up against Moira and Siryn for example. The team that is supposed to guard Xavier enters the astral plane too through Jean’s telepathy to help the Professor, yet this exposes him to physical danger in the form of Legion lurking around. The Shadow King now can destroy both Xavier’s mind and body, but before he fulfills his deed, Forge uses a neurosynaptic weapon on Psylocke and, while she is still dazed, plunges her psychic blade into Polaris’s head, disrupting the Nexus and the Shadow King’s power source. The Shadow King vanishes, Legion falls unconscious and Xavier’s back is broken, but the X-Men win and the dream is still alive. Brodie's View:We get the big final battle in the last part of the whole Muir Island/Shadow King thing, as the free X-Men/X-Factor take on those still under the control of the Shadow King, and try to disrupt the nexus that's keeping The Shadow King's power very alive. Meanwhile, Xaiver fights TSK himself in the astral plane, and ends up suffering quite a bit for that decision, as the King inflicts damage on Xaiver in the astral plane that is mirrored by his real body. This basically re-paralyzes Xaiver, bringing one more thing back to the status quo it needed to be for the Post Claremont era. Finally, through the combined effort of Forge and Psylocke, TSK's nexus is disrupted, as they free Polaris from being his nexus. This basically overloads Legion, and seemingly defeats/destroys the Shadow King once and for all. We end with things almost back into that new normal, except what to do with all of the mutants gathered there. It's a question that was asked back in #273, but never answered due to the X-Men being teleported into space. We'll see it answered over the next four reviews. Of course, this starts in the next review, as we'll get a nice wrap up of things by writer Peter David, which also sets up somewhat what the new status quo will be. However, we'll see a good deal of the big picture, especially what ends up happening with both the X-Men and the original X-Factor, who basically get absorbed into the X-Men in our last three reviews, which will also be the first three issues of the newly launched second X-MEN series, which will just simply be named X-MEN. We are coming up on the end of things, which will lead also to the period of the group's greatest point of popularity. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 6, 2017 1:02:12 GMT -5
X-Factor #70"Ends and Odds"Cover Date: September, 1991 Writer: Peter David Artist: Kirk Jarvinen Team: Cyclops, Jean Grey/Marvel Girl, Archangel, Beast, Iceman Villain/s: None Guest Stars: Colossus, Wolverine, Psylocke, Jubilee, Gambit, Banshee, Forge & Storm (Professor Xaiver), Mystique, Nick Fury, Val Cooper, Moria MacTaggert, Siryn, Multiple Man, Legion, Guido/Strong Guy, & Polaris Official Plot: After the fight with the Shadow King, Legion is in a coma and Xavier tries to wake him up. After many mental probes Xavier accepts that he is unable to help his son. He returns from the astral plane to his physical body and is informed that his legs have been crushed, meaning he again will be confined to a wheelchair. With the original five X-Men returning, the X-Men now have fourteen members. Mystique and Val Cooper explains how Mystique was not killed, but only replaced Val to fool the Shadow King. Mystique and Rogue reunite. Val thinks about restarting a governmental sanctioned team and offers Polaris, Multiple Man and Guido to join. Brodie's View:We basically get both an epilogue and a prologue in this issue by Peter David, who closes the door on the previous continuity, and starts to set up the new one. Like a lot of David's writing, which is an acquired taste for some, there is a lot of humor mixed with touching moments (Xaiver accepting the fact that his son has been thrown into a psychic due to The Shadow King being "destroyed" while he was controlling Legion's body, and Mystique and Rogue having their much needed reunion after each's supposed death), and the humor being....well, pretty much the rest of the issue, as we get a lot of goofiness involving the cast of David's upcoming run on a new X-Factor that would form between this issue and the next. It's members would include Havok, Polaris, Wolfsbane, Multiple Man, and Strong Guy (With Quicksilver acting as kind of a reserve member), and it would be a more lighthearted book than what had come before. As for the original X-Factor, they would basically be absorbed back into the X-Men team after the events of this issue, which would end up, at least in the short term, being split into two different groups, but we'll get into that more in tomorrow's review. Anyways, this issue ends with the revelation that Xaiver would survive the injuries suffered at the hands of the Shadow King, although, he once again would be paralyzed, needing to once more use a wheelchair. A new spiffy one would be designed for him using Shi'ar technology and assumingly Forge, which is the one he would have in the X-Men cartoon. The cartoon X-Men would largely be based off of the look of the team in the new continuity's X-MEN books, which we will see in our last three reviews. This all starts tomorrow, as we return back to basics in many ways, but with a brand new team dynamic, as I said previously. This new set of X-Men teams will face an old foe, who has a new cast of followers as deadly as he is. Quite a bit is set up for the future in Chris Claremont's last X-Men issues for the 90's, and the last epic story of his run. The work he and artist Jim Lee does in the next issue makes history. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 6, 2017 21:16:06 GMT -5
X-Men #1"Rubicon"Cover Date: October, 1991 Writers: Chris Claremont and Jim Lee Artist: Jim Lee Team/s: Blue Team (Cyclops, Wolverine, Beast, Gambit, Psylocke, & Rogue), Gold Team (Storm, Jean Grey, Archangel, Colossus, & Iceman), Professor X Villain/s: Magneto, The Acolytes (Fabian Cortez, Delgado, Anne-Marie Cortez, Chrome, & Nance Winters) Guest Stars: Nick Fury, Banshee, Moria Mactaggert, & Forge Official Plot: A group of mutants have stolen a shuttle and are being pursued by some agents. Magneto arrives and tears their ships apart before bringing them on board Asteroid M. At the mansion the X-Men are testing the building's defenses. They split into two teams, but only Wolverine, with Psylocke's help, is able to breach them. The two different crews fight on board the asteroid until Magneto stops them. One of them, Fabian Cortez, has a suggestion for Magneto. Back at the mansion the X-Men Blue team respond to a signal that Magneto is up to something. He has raised a nuclear submarine. The X-Men confront him, but after a brief battle he flies off with the nuclear weapons. Rogue tries to follow him to talk, but is shot down by a Russian plane. Magneto is hurt and is healed by Cortez. Rogue is found in Genosha but is pursued by the newly formed Acolytes wanting her to join them. She disagrees and fights them, and the X-Men arrive to help her. Magneto turns up and declares that Asteroid M will be a haven for all mutantkind. Brodie's View:It's the beginning of the end time, as we come to this historic issue, which, as of today, is still the best selling comic book ever. A lot of the credit at the time was given to superstar artist, Jim Lee, who was one of the main "Rock Star" artists of the time (Todd McFarlane and Rob Liefield were some of the other major names in that selective group), but really when one thinks about it, and I've given you about 2 months of review to think about it, this issue was the culmination of the 16/17 years of building Chris Claremont had done to make the X-Men the super popular team/book they were at this point. And it's pretty clear Claremont approached this as his one last huge blockbuster X-Men story, as it involves their greatest foe, Magneto, and his crossing back over into being a full fledged villain again (although, as will be fully revealed in the next issue, his actions are somewhat justified this time). To boot, Claremont and Lee provide him with a group of followers; Magneto cultists known as the Acolytes, who are all highly powerful mutants, and therefore, dangerous in their own right. They will also pick up the fight in their "Lord's" name when he is unable to do so, as they fully believe in his cause, which makes them quite the frightening villains. However, on the other side of things, we have an X-Man team so massive, that it causes two different squads of X-Men teams to need to be formed, with Cyclops leading the Blue Team, and Storm leading the Gold. We see these teams in all their glory during a "Danger Room" session, to see who will be the first team/mutant to reach Professor X, who has gladly reclaimed his spot as being their teacher, mentor, and father figure. Like I said, this issue is bringing it all back home in a spectacular way. As I said before, though, the main thrust of this story is Magneto, and his slow path back to being the X-Men's Biggest Bad. What starts out being Magneto trying to protect his new followers, and provide a place for them where they will be safe from the meddling of humans, quickly turns into a new battle between these two opposing forces. Of course, some of this is spurned on by some of the Acolytes themselves, as there are a few within the group that have their own agendas. We'll also see this play out over the next few issues. There will also be a secret revealed, as I stated earlier, that speeds up Magneto's decent towards the dark side, particularly his reaction to finding out that secret. This will lead to the last major confrontation between the X-Men and Magneto, or at least the last one Chris Claremont would write, and lead to the new era that the book would follow after he left. GRADE: A+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 6, 2017 23:18:32 GMT -5
X-Men #2 "Firestorm"Cover Date: November, 1991 Writers: Chris Claremont and Jim Lee Artist: Jim Lee Team: Blue Team (Cyclops, Wolverine, Beast, Gambit, Psylocke, & Rogue), Gold Team (Storm, Jean Grey, Archangel, Colossus, & Iceman), Professor X Villain/s: Magneto, The Acolytes (Fabian Cortez, Delgado, Anne-Marie Cortez, Chrome, & Nance Winters), Matsu'o Tsurayaba, Hand Assassins, Omega Red (Hidden) Guest Stars: Nick Fury, Banshee, Moria Mactaggert, Val Cooper, & Forge Official Plot: Magneto and the Acolytes defeat the Blue team of the X-Men and take them aboard Asteroid X. While Xavier tries to get through to Moira, they are both kidnapped by Magneto as well. Turns out that while Magneto was an infant and in Moira’s care, she manipulated his genetic structure, attempting to cure a possible instability of his central nervous system, suspecting that this condition had turned him into a villain. Magneto gets mad, having now to question his every decision since the procedure, angrily he makes Moira brainwash the Blue team into joining his Acolytes. The other half of the X-Men wonder how to help. The situation gets even more tense when Nick Fury reports that the US and Russia have decided to launch a plasma cannon against Asteroid M. Brodie's View:In this issue, a big secret is revealed, which causes Magneto to complete his journey back to the dark side, and kidnap not only Xaiver and Moria MacTaggert, but the entire Blue Team of the X-Men as well. It turns out than when Magneto was de-aged into being a baby by Alpha, an alien entity that Magneto thought was a mutant, and under the care of Moria MacTaggert, she messed with him, genetically, which basically set up his becoming a good guy. Needless to say, this enrages Magneto, who now doubts every decision he has made since being re-aged by Eric the Red, and he strikes out, kidnapping all of the above named, and forcing Moria to brainwash the Blue Team of the X-Men into joining him and his Acolytes. Back on Earth, Nick Fury, Val Cooper, and the X-People remaining are freaking out over the implications of this, and plan on firing a plasma cannon on Asteroid M before Magneto can decide to mount an attack. However, the Gold Team talk the U.S government into delaying that action, as they are going to try and mount a rescue mission to get their people back, or die trying. (Pretty much the last time I'll get to use this one in this run ) This is pretty much the set up for the end of this run, which will be the next review. We see hints of what will come after, but I won't be reviewing that, as we'll pretty much be fully into the Jim Lee run X-Book by then, and as much as I like Lee's work, it's not what I signed up for. However, it'll lead to the debut of Omega Red, who will be a huge thorn in the side of both Wolverine and the X-Men during this period. I will be talking briefly about the Post Claremont history of the X-Men a couple reviews from now, as kind of a bridge between this run and the short run I'll be doing next, which I consider to be the only two MUST READ runs on that team (Not that the stuff in between is shit....far from it, but those are the runs I would give someone who had never read the X-Men to read). But first, we must end the Claremont run, and that will take place later. GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 7, 2017 1:08:34 GMT -5
X-Men #3"Fallout!"Cover Date: December, 1991 Writers: Chris Claremont and Jim Lee Artist: Jim Lee Team: Blue Team (Cyclops, Wolverine, Beast, Gambit, Psylocke, & Rogue), Gold Team (Storm, Jean Grey, Archangel, Colossus, & Iceman), Professor X Villain/s: Magneto, The Acolytes (Fabian Cortez, Delgado, Anne-Marie Cortez, Chrome, & Nance Winters) Guest Stars: Nick Fury, Banshee, Moria Mactaggert, Val Cooper, & Forge Official Plot: The Gold Team of the X-Men travels to Asteroid M in an undetectable space ship, desperately trying to save their teammates before the Russians destroy Magneto’s base with a plasma cannon. Aboard the Asteroid, Xavier helplessly sees his Blue Team brainwashed by Moira into following Magneto, though some of them seem to realize that something is wrong. Magneto, still suffering from injuries received by Wolverine, grows more and more dependent on Fabian Cortez's cures. When the Gold Team arrives, they have to fight both their teammates and the Acolytes, but soon the X-Men remember themselves. Magneto stops the battle, wanting only Xavier, but then he collapses. Moira understands that Cortez has only boosted his powers to make him feel better. In the meantime, Cortez has escaped, and intends to turn Magneto into a martyr and inspire mutants all around the world to follow him. As the plasma cannon is fired, the X-Men hurry to their spaceship. They want to rescue Magneto and the remaining Acolytes as well, but they prefer to stay aboard Asteroid M and die as it goes down. Brodie's View:So, here we are people, this is the end; the final issue Chris Claremont would write for the X-Men until 2000, and the last he would write for Marvel until 1997. However, he does try to end this as if it were his last word on the matter, especially as it concerns Magneto, who he put a great deal of work into throughout his run, transforming him into way more than the mutant Dr. Doom he had been up to that point. On one hand, this story does end with the Good Guys winning, as they (The Gold Team of the X-Men) are able to Invade Asteroid M, manage to fight off both the Blue Team (who quickly are able to shuffle off Magneto's brainwashing, due to Moria adding a little glitch that the brainwashing would wear off once the Blue Team started to use their powers) and the Acolytes, who are betrayed (as is Magneto) by Fabian Cortez, who wishes to take Magneto's place by making him and the initial Acolytes martyrs by causing their deaths, and rebuild his own Acolytes (which he does, and it does work....for a little while ). For Magneto, though, this story is a tragedy, as he is undone by his own followers (well, the lead one), and left to seemingly perish aboard Asteroid M, which is hit with the plasma cannon the U.S threatened to use against it last issue, and crashes down to Earth. However, Magneto does go to his seeming death kind of forecasting what the future will be for both the X-Men and mutant-kind, promising that things would become worse in his absence, and in a way, he's proven absolutely right. The threats do end up amping up in the 90's, and growing more plentiful, as probably needed to happen, as the amount of mutants had grown at that point into a small army, and that number would increase even more as we went through the 90's. In my next review (Yes, there will be one more), I will take you through the period between this issue and the Joss Whedon run, which I'll be doing next. I'll try to hit the high points of what happens with the X-Men, with Marvel, and even with Claremont during that 12 or so year period, as I was a hardcore reader during this period, so, I can definitely speak on what happened during that better than I could past when Joss' run ended (2007). So, yeah....tomorrow, brief history of the X-Men from 1992-2004ish. GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 7, 2017 23:35:37 GMT -5
The Bridge: The X-Men from 1992 to 2004 (A brief history)So, yeah, I'm going to foolishly try to briefly explain what happened to the X-Men, Chris Claremont, and through that, Marvel in the 12 year period between when Chris Claremont's run ended and Joss Whedon's began, which will be my last 24 review statement on the X-Men. As I stated several times towards the end of the Claremont run, there would be a greater emphasis placed on artists vs. writers as we entered the 1990's, as they were thought to be the bread and butter over who was actually writing the books, and to be honest, it was hard to kind of argue with that point at the time, as three of the biggest sellers during that period were the artist centered Spider-Man #1 (Todd McFarlane doing both the writing and art), X-Force #1 (Rob Liefield co-plotting with Fabian Nicieza, and drawing), and, of course, X-Men #1 (Jim Lee co-plotting with Chris Claremont, and drawing). Lee would also co-plot UNCANNY during that period with fellow artists Whilce Portacio and John Byrne (who most likely was writing the dialogue, and would also assist with the co-plotting of the 2nd X-MEN book after Claremont left. He wouldn't stick around very long on either book, though), before Scott Lobdell and later Fabian Nicieza would take over the dialogue writing. In late 1992, the Rock Star artists (Lee, McFarlane, Liefield, Portacio, and others) would decide that although they were pretty much getting allowed to do what they wanted by Marvel, they wanted to 100% own all of their ideas and concepts (and all the profit they generated), and they all split to form IMAGE COMICS. This would leave Lobdell and Nicieza holding the bag in some ways, but in some ways, it was even better for them, as they assumed full control over the creative of the main X-Books (In addition, Nicieza gained full control of X-Force, and Lobdell would do short spurts on EXCALIBUR and X-FACTOR, trying to bring them in line with what was happening on the main X-Books). This would pretty much be the status quo from late 1992 until mid 1995, which was also the period where the X-ECUTIONER'S SONG (A Crossover concerning Cable and his arch nemesis, Stryfe, which is also the point where it was revealed that Cable was the son Cyclops sent into the future, and Stryfe was his Apocalypse created clone), FATAL ATTRACTIONS (The return of Magneto and his Acolytes as a major threat. This is also the Crossover where Wolverine's adamantium was ripped out by Magneto), BLOODLINES (An X-Men/Avengers/WCA crossover, also involving the Acolytes), and THE PHALNAX COVENANT (Involving an alien/techno organic threat. This would end up launching a new young mutant group, GENERATION X) took place. The Lobdell/Nicieza partnership would end soon after 1995's Crossover event, THE AGE OF APOCALYPSE, which was a 4 month alternate reality story based on the idea of "What if Xaiver had been killed back before he formed the X-Men, and Magneto was forced to form that group in order to fight off a massive takeover attempt by Apocalypse?" This would, IMO, be the creative peak of the X-Books during this period, as AOA was a really kick ass story that took some interesting chances/turns. Shortly after that storyline, Nicieza would leave the X-Books, and Lobdell would pretty much take full control of the X-Books until late 1997 (Save for a few months when Mark Waid would write the 2nd X-MEN book), and would front two more major X-Crossovers; 1996's ONSLAUGHT (Where Xaiver would seemingly turn evil, and form an almost unbeatable foe that would necessitate most of the Marvel Universe to defeat. This would lead to the Avengers, Hulk, and Fantastic Four (and some of their surrounding characters) being sent to a pocket universe for a year, where Jim Lee and Rob Liefield (yes, the two that split on Marvel to help form IMAGE) were given almost complete artistic/creative control of), and 1997's OPERATION ZERO TOLERANCE (Which would involve a new human melded sentinel program, created by a being formed when NIMROD and the MASTER MOLD were merged after being sucked into the Siege Perilous back in UXM #247, Bastion). The end of this crossover would be the end of Lobdell's run on the book (although, he would come back for a short stint in 2001, to basically bridge the end of Claremont's 2nd run to Grant Morrison's run, but more on all that shortly), and the creative reigns would be given to Steven T. Seagle (Uncanny) and Joe Kelly (X-Men). However, neither writer would make much of a splash during their short periods on the book, and would pretty much do nothing more than pick off of where Lobdell left off, story-character-wise, and set the stage for writer/artist, Alan Davis, who would write the book from late 1998 to 2000. Davis would end up seemingly killing off Wolverine during his run, but that Wolverine would be revealed to be a Skrull (Who the team had encountered earlier in Davis' run), and the real Wolverine had been delivered to Apocalypse, who brainwashed him, gave him back his adamantium, and made him his new Death (for his 4 Horsemen). This would lead to 1999's THE TWELVE/THE AGES OF APOCALYPSE storyline, where the seemingly immortal mutant would capture the Twelve mutants deemed to be most important to the future of mutant-kind, in order to jump into a new body. This would lead to a brief breakdown in the timeline, but the X-Men would manage to stop Apocalypse by Cyclops briefly tricking Apocalypse into jumping into his body before seemingly rejecting him. This would cause Cyclops to once again leave the X-Men, and set the stage for Chris Claremont's (who after being a writer for hire for a few years, was brought back to Marvel to write THE FANTASTIC FOUR, which he would from 1997-2000) momentous return to the X-Books. In 2000, after Davis had ended his run, Claremont did indeed return, but sadly, he was competing with the memory of his first run, and how great that had been, and his 2nd run.....kind of sucked. He pretty much ignored the work the writers in between had done with certain characters to get them back to how he wrote them, and his new villains (Led by lame "Super Mutants," The Neo) didn't exactly set the world on fire. He would only last a year on the books before being once again pulled from them, however, this time he was given the consolation prize of his own X-Book, X-TREME X-MEN, which would involve all of the characters neither oncoming writers Grant Morrison or Joe Casey (who would soon be replace by shit writer, Chuck Austin, and then better writer, Peter Milligan) wanted, which was actually quite a few of the better characters. X-TREME X-MEN would last until 2004, when Claremont would do one last stint on UNCANNY from 2004-2005 (Which was better, but it majorly involved going back to past X-MEN/EXCALIBUR/CAPTAIN BRITAIN storylines), an ending of the X-Men using the continuity up to when Morrison left the book, called X-MEN: THE END during that period, and then an alternate timeline book called X-MEN FOREVER, which kind of picks up what the status quo would have been for the X-Men had Claremont never left the book in 1992. This book would run from 2010-2012. Needless to say, Grant Morrison would bring about a lot of changes during his three year run on the 2nd X-Men book, which he had re-titled NEW X-MEN during this period. He would have the X-Men wearing black leather outfits (As would Mark Millar during his ULTIMATE X-MEN book, which was an alternate reality version of the team, had they been formed in 2000), had Beast mutate into looking more like a cat, and brought Emma Frost into the group as a full fledged member. The book would take on a more crazy soap opera aspect, with Morrison's insane ideas pleasing some while pissing off others, as he would play fast and loose with continuity. His major contribution during this period would be revealing that Xaiver had a twin that he seemingly tried to kill in the womb (Cassandra Nova), but survived, and had crazy powers that made Xaiver's look weak (And a hate for her brother that would drive her to switch places with him and try to destroy first the X-Men, and then the whole galaxy, forever ruining Charles' link with Lilandra and the Shi'ar in the process. The fallout from this would be explored not only in Claremont's last run, at least as it concerned Rachel Summers, who he had brought back to the UNCANNY team, but also Ed Brubaker's "FALL OF THE SHI'AR EMPIRE" storyline, which would also reveal the long lost Summers brother). Morrison's run would end with Jean Grey dying at Magneto's hands, and then the master of magnetism being decapitated by an enraged Wolverine. The 2nd event would be ret-conned away after Morrison left, as it was revealed that the character Magneto had been impersonating, newer X-Men, Xorn (pictured above), was actually really Xorn, or at least his evil brother, who was impersonating Magneto......ARGGHHHHH!!!!!! Anyways, this sets the stage for Joss Whedon's run, which would run from 2004-2007, and I'll be discussing some of the other minor events from the Morrison run (Which Whedon plays off of in some cases during his run, as that had been the run that made him interested in doing an X-Men run in the first place. It obviously brought him back as a reader, after seemingly leaving the book after Claremont left) during those reviews. I'll be starting that run of reviews, or as I like to call it, "One Last X-Men Story," in the next few days. Until then, read back over the last 20+ pages to see how we got to that point.
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 9, 2017 1:29:31 GMT -5
Astonishing X-Men #1 "Gifted (Part 1)"Cover Date: July, 2004 Writer: Joss Whedon Artist: John Cassaday Team: Cyclops, Emma Frost, Wolverine, Kitty Pryde, and Beast Villain/s: Ord (1st Appearance) Guest Stars: Dr. Kavita Rao & Tildie Soames (1st Appearance) Official Plot: Tildie Soames is having a nightmare about the onset of her mutant powers resulting in the death of her parents. Waking up screaming, Dr. Kavita Rao comforts her. Kitty Pryde arrives at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, her baggage denoting an indefinite return. Walking down the drive and through the foyer, she experiences flashbacks of her early years with the X-Men. Arriving in the Danger Room for the orientation presentation, Kitty finds she is late. Emma Frost introduces the faculty, lays down some ground rules and triggers a holographic simulation of a Sentinel attack. Commenting on the 'lesson', she states, "they will always hate us." In the headmaster's office, Cyclops is upset with Emma's simulation. Emma responds that 10% of the students were excited about combat, and she thought he should know. At dawn, Wolverine finds Scott and Emma together in bed and provokes Cyclops, who blasts him out to the front yard and they face off in front of the students. Later, the staff has a meeting in the Danger Room (sitting on holographic islands of Hawaii). Beast reprimands Logan and Scott for their behavior. Refusing to apologize, Scott realizes the absurdity, going on to say that the X-Men need to start presenting themselves more like a superhero team again, like the Avengers or the Fantastic Four. "Here come the tights," Logan retorts. Elsewhere, the acclaimed geneticist Kavita Rao gives a press conference about the release of the new drug Hope, claiming it can cure the X-Gene "disease". At the prestigious Chapman Building, Ord of the Breakworld and some hired mercenaries make hostages of the attendees of Walter Langford's Annual Fundraiser for the Preservation of Victorian Architecture. Hearing about the situation on the news, the X-Men don their costumes and leave. Brodie's View:So, I decided to start this series of reviews a few days earlier than I originally was going to. (Yay! Boredom!) And, of course, it is none other than the beginning of my final 24 review statement on the X-Men (Well, the main team, at least), Joss Whedon's ASTONISHING X-MEN run. Why did I choose this run over Scott Lobdell's, Claremont's 2nd (or 3rd) run on the book, or Grant Morrison's? Well, Lobdell's, while not being as bad as many have stated, is just really the straight continuation of what Claremont was doing, and I really don't feel like reviewing a long ass run again, unless we're talking Byrne's FF or EXCALIBUR. Claremont's 2nd run was just sad, and unlike many reviewers that enjoy blasting terrible things, I take no enjoyment in talking about things I just straight up don't like, and, sadly, Claremont's 2nd run was pretty Craptastic. As for Morrison, while I will be mentioning his run here and there during Whedon's, as it's pretty clear that Morrison's run and Claremont's 80's stuff was the main inspirations behind Joss doing this run to begin with, I think Joss' run was superior to Morrison's, so, I might as well go for the stronger run (Nothing against Morrison's run, but there was some crap amongst the greatness). Speaking of those runs, it is pretty clear that while Joss kind of takes the soap opera/huge swerve strengths that Morrison's run had, he combined it with the heart and great character-work of Claremont's run (along with his own knack for snarky/witty dialogue), and who better represents the best of Claremont's work, as it relates to character and heart, than our own "Mary Sue," (Seriously, what the hell does being a "Mary Sue" even mean? What? She doesn't resemble a stripper, so, she's a "Mary Sue?" I don't get it. EDIT: Okay, I looked up what being a "Mary Sue" is, and it's still horseshit) and the person I often referred to as the Heart of the team, Kitty Pryde. Joss has often stated that Kitty was one of the major inspirations for Buffy Summers, so, she kind of HAD to be the focal character of this run, and she was the perfect vehicle for Joss' unique writing style. Plus, she really brings back the awe and wonder at the height of the Claremont era (the early 80's), and as we first see her in the book, coming back to the X-Mansion, we see little glimpses of images from Claremont's early 80's issues; from her kissing Pitor under the Mistletoe in #143, to her declaring Professor X a JERK in #168. She then joins Cyclops, Beast, and Emma Frost, who is officially welcoming the new students to Xaiver's, as Kitty has been invited in as a new teacher, and, as we later find out, a member of Scott's new "Elite" team of X-Men. Of course, due to their history, Kitty has an instantly adversarial relationship to Emma Frost, who is now officially dating the recently widowed (As Jean Grey once again died at the end of Morrison's run) Scott Summers. Of course, this doesn't sit right with the one member of the team that isn't at the Orientation, Wolverine, who confronts Scott over his rebounding on Jean so quickly. Once that brief conflict is out of the way (and there is quite a bit of inter character conflict during Joss' run, especially in this first storyline), Scott gives his mission statement to this new team that the X-Men are going back to being what they were until they kind of became slowly ostracized from the rest of the Marvel Universe, a team of super heroes. This involves tossing aside the black leather of the Morrison run (And to be fair, the movies, which kind of originated the look) for new versions of their classic costumes, and it's good that they are ready to be that super hero team again, as the rest of the issue gives hints of the various threats they will face during this first arc; from physical threats like new alien character, Ord (who represents a new to the Marvel Universe planet known only as The Breakworld), to the non physical mutant "cure" that would later work its way (Needlessly) into the Third X-Men movie. However, as we'll soon find, these two threats have a connection, which will lead to some shocks and surprises (As well as more inter-team conflict) as this arc progresses. As it is, though, this issue was a fantastic start to this whole run, as it is the perfect fresh start this new team of X-Men needed (And instead of going back to tried and true threats like Magneto or Apocalypse, Whedon instead created a brand new threat with the whole Ord/Breakworld stuff, as well as the mutant cure). As someone who knew exactly the eras Whedon was paying homage to with his approach, this was such a wonderful start that made me feel warm and nostalgic, while making me excited for where Joss could be going with this whole deal. For the most part, I wasn't disappointed. I will say one more thing before I end this review, and I will mention it here, to avoid gushing over it throughout the run (Although, I will mention exceptionally great moments, in particular, when they happen), and that is the....Astonishing artwork by John Cassaday, who I had already been a fan of from his work on Warren Ellis' PLANETARY, but the evolving of his artwork from that to this was just jaw dropping, and this whole run would put him near the top of the list of my favorite X-artists of all time. GRADE: A+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 9, 2017 22:52:28 GMT -5
Astonishing X-Men #2 "Gifted (Part 2)"Cover Date: August, 2004 Writer: Joss Whedon Artist: John Cassaday Team: Cyclops, Emma Frost, Wolverine, Kitty Pryde, Lockheed, and Beast Villain/s: Ord Guest Stars: Dr. Kavita Rao & Tildie Soames Official Plot: Dr. Kavita Rao promotes a cure at a press conference which she claims would safely and irreversibly eliminate the mutant strain. The X-Men handle a hostage situation led by Ord. While Shadowcat phases many of the hostages to safety, the rest of the team charges in and attacks Ord and his mercenaries. However, Ord and his men are prepared for the attack, and Ord hold his own against five X-Men. However, Lockheed surprises Ord by attacking him with a blast of fire to the face and knocking him out of the window of the building. The X-Men make peace with news reporter and Beast first hears about the "cure". At the Xavier Institute, many of the students have mixed feelings about the announcement. Emma Frost and Logan think that the government would use this cure as an excuse to horde up the mutants and execute them. After the rest of the team leaves, Emma Frost tells Kitty that she is here because Emma requested her to re-join the team. Emma explains that she needs someone on the team she has not really fought alongside to watch her if she leads the team astray. Kitty replies that she still views Emma as the embodiment of evil, saying, "I don't have to 'watch you', Miss Frost. I can smell you." Beast infiltrates BeneTech Laboratories and asks Dr. Rao if he can have a sample of the cure to see if it actually works and is not just a hoax. Brodie's View:Dr. Kavita Rao explains her Mutant Cure in this second part of Joss Whedon's first arc, "Gifted," using the example of a little girl who first manifested her mutants ability into the form of some sort of creature, that then killed her parents. Meanwhile, the X-Men swoop in to try and stop the alien, Ord, who along with a group of hired thugs, has taken hostages at a upper crust function. However, while this X-Men team do function well as a cohesive unit, Ord is waiting for them, and quickly takes them out. It's only due to the surprise return of Lockheed ( ) (Who scorches the alien's face) that Ord is defeated, at least in this particular confrontation. However, as the issues progress, we'll find out more about Ord, the world he's from, and his motivations for targeting the X-Men, as it's basically the over arcing story for Joss' entire run. In other words, Ord is far from being a one and done villain, despite his chumping out by Kitty's pet dragon in his 2nd appearance. After the brief battle between the X-Men and Ord, the rest of this issue belongs to Dr. Rao's Mutant Cure, and the reactions by both the team and the students at Xaiver's after finding out about it. This ranges from anger and paranoia over what the government could do with this cure (By Wolverine and Emma), neutral feelings about it (Kitty and Cyclops), or in the most tragic turn, hope over whether or not it would actually work (Beast). In fact, Beast's little character arc in this kind of flies in the face of the opinion that Joss' whole run is the "Kitty Pryde" show, as really each of the members of the team (Other than Wolverine, but, then again, Logan has enough issues of story dedicated to him....I mean, dude had his own book) get focus time during this run, and this is Hank McCoy's time to shine. We'll see that despite his seeming ambivalence over his devolving from his popular "Monkey" form to that of a giant cat at the beginning of Grant Morrison's run, this change has kind of shaken him to the core, and one could easily see why a mutant cure would be appealing to him. Of course, this is going to cause some conflict with some of the more Anti Cure members of the team, and we'll see that play out in the next issue. Let's put it this way, if you didn't get your fill of X-Men fighting each other last issue, tune in for the next review, as the fur (and claws) does fly. One more little (well, not so little) thing to mention about this issue is the fantastic cover, which is my favorite of this entire run, as it says so much with just one little image, especially where it concerns the relationship between Cyclops and Emma Frost. One assumed, I'm sure, and especially due to Emma's villainous past, that the former White Queen was using some sort of mind manipulation to make Scott instantly kind of fall for her after his wife dying (Well, actually, before Jean died, but we'll kind of chock that up more to lust). Kitty certainly thinks so, and makes no bones about stating her concern to Emma in a very tense interaction between the two. To Kitty's minor surprise, Emma basically mentions her worry about the same thing, stating that she was the one that OK'ed Kitty being brought on the team for that very reason. The scene ends with cattiness between the two, but I will say that by the end of this run we do get an answer on how genuine the feelings are between Scott and Emma, and whether a return to dark side is in the cards for the White Queen....well, at least before Joss' run is over (Obviously, those who have kept up on recent events in the X-books know the answer to this, but let's keep it down for those who haven't....at least for now. Kay? Kay.). GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 11, 2017 1:01:52 GMT -5
Astonishing X-Men #3"Gifted (Part 3)"Cover Date: September, 2004 Writer: Joss Whedon Artist: John Cassaday Team: Cyclops, Emma Frost, Wolverine, Kitty Pryde, Lockheed, and Beast Villain/s: Ord Guest Stars: Paladins Squad (Wing) (1st appearance of group of students and character), Dr. Kavita Rao, Tildie Soames, Agent Brand/S.W.O.R.D (1st appearance of character/group), Nick Fury/S.H.I.E.L.D Official Plot: Kitty Pryde tries to tell Wing that he need not worry that someone is going to force him to take the cure because the government can not force it on their community. Wing stays skeptical, especially as reports show that hundreds of mutants are lining up outside BeneTech Laboratories for the cure. While Beast works on the serum sample, Ord confronts Dr. Kavita Rao for giving it to the X-Men, but Dr. Rao reasons they would have gotten it any way. Agent Nick Fury looks at the weapons left behind from Ord's mercenaries and tells Cyclops they are S.H.I.E.L.D. design. Cyclops asks Nick Fury for help and the two only get into an argument. Wolverine believes Beast took the cure for his own use and the two fight until Emma uses her telepathy to stop them. Beast discovers that it is Jean's body that tests are being run on. Brodie's View:This issue concerns Dr. Rao's Mutant Cure almost entirely (although, we do see Ord briefly talking to Rao, thereby, showing that the alien and the scientist have some sort of working relationship), as we see the fallout of its discovery being felt by both the students and the staff of Xaiver's. Cyclops confronts Nick Fury over the whole issue, with Fury playing dumb about his own knowledge of this whole deal (Given away with the introduction of Agent Brand after Scott departs, who represents the galactic version of S.H.I.E.L.D known as S.W.O.R.D. We'll be seeing MUCH more of the mysterious (and unpleasant) Agent in the upcoming issues, as she ends up spilling the beans on what this whole Ord/Mutant Cure thing is about, and sets the major over arcing storyline for this run fully in motion). See, there is a dark underbelly to Dr. Rao's bright rhetoric about mutant cures and the such, and it involves the methods used to gain said cure, which seems to highly imply that the cure was brought about by experimenting on the bodies of dead mutants, which upon that discovery, the rest of the team take to mean a certain recently dead red head. However, the above summation of events mainly deals with the external conflicts the X-Men must deal with. The meat of this issue deals with the internal conflicts between the students and staff at Xaiver's, as Kitty tries to reassure the students that the cure isn't a concern for them, only to basically be called retarded by one of the students (Oh Snap! ). This leads to yet another argument between Kitty and Emma, which is then ended abruptly by Hank admitting that he went to Dr. Rao the night before, and she gave him a sample of the cure, which he was testing to see if it worked. This leads to the major fight in this issue, as Wolverine tries to force Hank to dispose of the cure sample, only to get the Beast in full force. This was awesome, as I can't really remember these two characters ever fighting, and Hank gives as good as he gets, dropping his cool to unleash his full, cat-like fury on Logan. It'd be interesting to see how this fight would have gone, had Emma not forced them to stop (In a pretty funny scene, which is followed by an equally funny scene where the team gather to talk, post fight, once again, in the Danger Room, which has been programmed to resemble a small child's bedroom, giant teddy bears and all). Anyways, once the team is brought back on the same page by the discovery of how Dr. Rao was getting her cure, this sets the stage for next issue's invasion of BeneTech Laboratories, and possibly the best resurrection of a dead character ever to take place in comics, as well as the greatest 2-3 pages of this entire run. Seriously, it's pretty f**king awesome, and I've never been a fan of bringing characters back, so, if it impressed me, you know it must be good. GRADE: A-
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Post by "Trickster Dogg" James Jesse on Apr 11, 2017 2:49:42 GMT -5
Needless to say, Grant Morrison would bring about a lot of changes during his three year run on the 2nd X-Men book, which he had re-titled NEW X-MEN during this period. He would have the X-Men wearing black leather outfits (As would Mark Millar during his ULTIMATE X-MEN book, which was an alternate reality version of the team, had they been formed in 2000), had Beast mutate into looking more like a cat, and brought Emma Frost into the group as a full fledged member. The book would take on a more crazy soap opera aspect, with Morrison's insane ideas pleasing some while pissing off others, as he would play fast and loose with continuity. His major contribution during this period would be revealing that Xaiver had a twin that he seemingly tried to kill in the womb (Cassandra Nova), but survived, and had crazy powers that made Xaiver's look weak (And a hate for her brother that would drive her to switch places with him and try to destroy first the X-Men, and then the whole galaxy, forever ruining Charles' link with Lilandra and the Shi'ar in the process. The fallout from this would be explored not only in Claremont's last run, at least as it concerned Rachel Summers, who he had brought back to the UNCANNY team, but also Ed Brubaker's "FALL OF THE SHI'AR EMPIRE" storyline, which would also reveal the long lost Summers brother). Morrison's run would end with Jean Grey dying at Magneto's hands, and then the master of magnetism being decapitated by an enraged Wolverine. The 2nd event would be ret-conned away after Morrison left, as it was revealed that the character Magneto had been impersonating, newer X-Men, Xorn (pictured above), was actually really Xorn, or at least his evil brother, who was impersonating Magneto......ARGGHHHHH!!!!!! Maybe because reading Morrison's run on the books was what got me back into the idea of X-Men, I can't help but feel you're giving this run short shrift by not giving it the same kind of attention you've given other books mentioned in this thread. Certainly Morrison isn't for everyone, and at the worst of times his plotting can be unclear or bogged down by continuity or self-referentiality of the medium (and I say this as someone who considers Morrison to be my favourite comics writer). Still, reading E Is for Extinction was, for me anyway, such a breath of fresh air, showing that the idea of mutants had yet to be exhausted, and Quitely's art tapped into the weird, the alien, the alienated aspects of mutant-dom. Too bad I missed this run while it happened, since I stopped reading comics altogether in 1999-2000, by which point I had already abandoned X-books after Age of Apocalypse and Onslaught. Nevertheless, the book feels like a response to a bunch of things which is why I find it to be an exciting read: to the success of the first Singer movie, to the major X-Men stories that came before it (especially the first Claremont run, of which Morrison, in his own way, in terms of structure), and, most importantly, to the real-world contexts in which the book exists. The link below makes me think of the ways that Morrison's run is as important to X-Men history as those of Lee/Kirby, Claremont/Cockrum-Byrne, and Claremont/Lee (and perhaps Claremont/Sienkiewicz). sequart.org/magazine/43759/grant-morrison-9-11-new-x-men-ambient-magnetic-fields/I doubt that you'll run out of material for this thread, but at the very least, I suggest a re-visit of the Morrison era in greater depth if you were taxed for looking for another clear-cut run of books to discuss.
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 11, 2017 13:27:16 GMT -5
Needless to say, Grant Morrison would bring about a lot of changes during his three year run on the 2nd X-Men book, which he had re-titled NEW X-MEN during this period. He would have the X-Men wearing black leather outfits (As would Mark Millar during his ULTIMATE X-MEN book, which was an alternate reality version of the team, had they been formed in 2000), had Beast mutate into looking more like a cat, and brought Emma Frost into the group as a full fledged member. The book would take on a more crazy soap opera aspect, with Morrison's insane ideas pleasing some while pissing off others, as he would play fast and loose with continuity. His major contribution during this period would be revealing that Xaiver had a twin that he seemingly tried to kill in the womb (Cassandra Nova), but survived, and had crazy powers that made Xaiver's look weak (And a hate for her brother that would drive her to switch places with him and try to destroy first the X-Men, and then the whole galaxy, forever ruining Charles' link with Lilandra and the Shi'ar in the process. The fallout from this would be explored not only in Claremont's last run, at least as it concerned Rachel Summers, who he had brought back to the UNCANNY team, but also Ed Brubaker's "FALL OF THE SHI'AR EMPIRE" storyline, which would also reveal the long lost Summers brother). Morrison's run would end with Jean Grey dying at Magneto's hands, and then the master of magnetism being decapitated by an enraged Wolverine. The 2nd event would be ret-conned away after Morrison left, as it was revealed that the character Magneto had been impersonating, newer X-Men, Xorn (pictured above), was actually really Xorn, or at least his evil brother, who was impersonating Magneto......ARGGHHHHH!!!!!! Maybe because reading Morrison's run on the books was what got me back into the idea of X-Men, I can't help but feel you're giving this run short shrift by not giving it the same kind of attention you've given other books mentioned in this thread. Certainly Morrison isn't for everyone, and at the worst of times his plotting can be unclear or bogged down by continuity or self-referentiality of the medium (and I say this as someone who considers Morrison to be my favourite comics writer). Still, reading E Is for Extinction was, for me anyway, such a breath of fresh air, showing that the idea of mutants had yet to be exhausted, and Quitely's art tapped into the weird, the alien, the alienated aspects of mutant-dom. Too bad I missed this run while it happened, since I stopped reading comics altogether in 1999-2000, by which point I had already abandoned X-books after Age of Apocalypse and Onslaught. Nevertheless, the book feels like a response to a bunch of things which is why I find it to be an exciting read: to the success of the first Singer movie, to the major X-Men stories that came before it (especially the first Claremont run, of which Morrison, in his own way, in terms of structure), and, most importantly, to the real-world contexts in which the book exists. The link below makes me think of the ways that Morrison's run is as important to X-Men history as those of Lee/Kirby, Claremont/Cockrum-Byrne, and Claremont/Lee (and perhaps Claremont/Sienkiewicz). sequart.org/magazine/43759/grant-morrison-9-11-new-x-men-ambient-magnetic-fields/I doubt that you'll run out of material for this thread, but at the very least, I suggest a re-visit of the Morrison era in greater depth if you were taxed for looking for another clear-cut run of books to discuss. Oh, don't get me wrong. I really liked Morrison's run. He was the first writer to avoid just completely rehashing the Claremont era storylines, and try for something new, almost taking it back full circle to the feel the Lee/Kirby book had (of course, adding in his own insane twist on things). However, being a long time reader, I admit that the one thing that was missing from the Morrison run was heart, as I think a lot of British writers kind of have a cold, cynical approach to their writing that works like gang busters for certain concepts, but sticks out like a sore thumb for others. I chose the Whedon run over the Morrison run because it really combines what Grant did well in his run, while also not neglecting the heart and family feel that Chris put into his. Plus, to be honest, I want to move on to some kind of non X-Men book for my next series of reviews, so, I didn't want to jump on to a decently long run after doing a HUGE run like Claremont's. However, you're more than welcome to use this thread to review the Morrison run if you like. If you go back to the first post, I did give an open invite to other people wanting to do issue reviews. I'd be interested in reading your insight on those issues.
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 11, 2017 22:52:08 GMT -5
Astonishing X-Men #4"Gifted (Part 4)"Cover Date: October, 2004 Writer: Joss Whedon Artist: John Cassaday Team: Cyclops, Emma Frost, Wolverine, Kitty Pryde, Lockheed, and Beast Villain/s: Ord Guest Stars: Paladins Squad (Wing & Armor) (1st appearance of the 2nd character), Dr. Kavita Rao, & Colossus Official Plot: While the X-Men infiltrate BeneTech Laboratories and explore the basement, Kitty tries searching for the sub-basement, but discovers it is all solid metal. She decides to investigate. Ord shows up at the Xavier Institute and questions the mutants Wing and Hisako on the X-Men's whereabouts. However, when he learns that they are mutants, he prepares to inject them with the Hope Serum and Hisako fights back with her mutant powers while Wing flies into the air. Ord fights back against Hisako and Ord catches up to Wing and injects him with the serum, sending him plummeting back to Earth. At the BeneTech Laboratories basement, the X-Men find the corpse of a mutant woman presumably experimented on to make the "cure". Emma Frost tells the team they need to get back just as men wearing armored machine guns arrive. Kitty finally hits the sub-basement after traveling through solid steel. She finds the guards are protecting a certain subject, who she sets loose. Kitty is stunned to see that the subject is Colossus, who she previously thought dead. Colossus starts beating up the guards until Kitty urges him to stop. Upon seeing her, Colossus breaks down and embraces Kitty. Brodie's View:I'll start this review out by saying that I hate when people are needlessly brought back from the dead in comics. I think there should be a rule that if you're going to kill a character, that character has to stay dead at least 10 years, unless it happens and is undone within the same issue/storyline, or is a "What If/Alternate Reality" type of storyline. I think a big part of why both Marvel and DC have fallen into kind of rut, creatively, is that nothing that is done has any lasting impact on continuity anymore. It basically lasts until the next writer comes on and decides to undo what was done, often just to be petty. This happens quite a bit where it concerns the killing off of certain characters;characters are killed off and miraculously brought back a year or two later, with little to no lasting consequences. It's the reason death really means nothing in comics anymore, unless it's a minor character that no one gives a crap about. Saying all that, though, I will say that if you ARE going to bring a recently dead character back, you'd best do it well. It has to have as much meaning as the death did, and I will say that the return of Colossus (Who had died between Claremont's 2nd run and Morrison's run, so, 2001) was probably in the Top 5 best dead character resurrections ever done, IMO. as Joss and John Cassaday get the absolute most out of it. In fact, I would say the 2/3 pages where he makes his return should be put up as an example to young artists on how to convey so much story without having to use any dialogue at all. And how fitting is it that Kitty is the one to find him (As upon the X-Men's invasion of BeneTech Laboratories, Kitty phases into the sub basement to find out who Dr. Rao derived her mutant cure from), as these two characters have so much history with each other, both as friends and young "lovers." In fact, in many ways, this was the moment that had been building, or at least had been set aside for a future BIG moment by Chris Claremont, back in #183, when Colossus ended his and Kitty's growing relationship, after falling in love on Battleworld during the SECRET WARS mini. They would mend fences as friends, and even be co-members of the same teams, but while a few writers hinted at their past relationship, none of them decided that those relationship-al fences were worth being mended, until Joss came along. Of course, this once again gives away how in love Joss must have been with that ealry/mid 80's era of the team, which was my favorite era as well, so.... That is really the main story of this issue, as the X-Men, as previously stated, invade BeneTech, looking for answers, but with the exception of Kitty, who goes below to investigate (And going through alien metal, which ends up making her ill, even in her phased form. This will become muy important as we head into the last arc of this run, but we'll get back to that later), the rest of the team are attacked by BeneTech's armed guards. We also see Ord, who is unaware of the fact that the X-Men have come to him, going to the mansion to confront them, only to find students Wing and Armor instead, who instantly attack him. However, Wing pays the price for this, as Ord injects him with the mutant cure, sending him crashing back to the mansion (as he obviously had wings before this moment). What happens to Wing will set off the events of the next story arc, so, I won't talk much more about it here. I will say that next issue has a lot of action, as we build towards the end of this first, kick ass story arc, but there's much more kick ass to come....well, and the next story arc, which I will agree is the weakest of the four, but even that has its moments. GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 12, 2017 19:37:58 GMT -5
Astonishing X-Men #5 "Gifted (Part 5)" Cover Date: November, 2004 Writer: Joss Whedon Artist: John Cassaday Team: Cyclops, Emma Frost, Wolverine, Kitty Pryde, Lockheed, Colossus, and Beast Villain/s: Ord Guest Stars: Paladins Squad (Wing & Armor), New Mutants Squad (Elixir), Corsairs Squad (The Stepford Cuckoos), Dr. Kavita Rao, Agent Brand, & S.H.I.L.D/Nick Fury Official Plot: At the Xavier Institute, the on hand healer, Elixir, is able to repair the injuries Wing received at the hands of Ord of the Breakworld, though Wing quickly comes to a horrific realization: Ord has “cured” him of his mutant powers. Back at Benetech, Cyclops, Beast, Wolverine and Emma are at the mercy of the heavily armed Benetech guards, until the arrival of the startled Dr. Kavita Rao. Her attempts at helping the injured Cyclops give Wolverine time for his healing factor to repair his gunshot wounds. With Wolverine ready enough for action, Cyclops coordinates the X-Men’s counter-attack via Emma’s telepathy and the team quickly turns the tables on the Benetech guards. Their victory, however, seems short-lived, as Ord of the Breakworld returns, more than a match for the wounded and weary X-Men. Surprisingly, help arrives in the form of Colossus, much to the uncontrollable astonishment of the X-Men, as he is phased to the ground level of the Benetech facility from his underground prison by Kitty Pryde. At first, Ord is able to hold his own against Colossus, but the rage-filled blows of the former X-Man make short work of him. Before Colossus can finish the job, however, he and the rest of the X-Men find themselves surrounded by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, led by Nick Fury, who informs the team that they’re not going to win this day. Brodie's View:We get the story of Colossus' resurrection (At the hands of Ord and Breakworld technology) in this issue, and how he was repaid for his curing the AIDSlike Legacy Virus by being tortured by Ord, and having his DNA used to help make Dr. Rao's mutant cure. Of course, there is a definite reason Ord wants mutants wiped out, and we'll find out some of the specifics of that next issue, but it goes without saying that Pitor is pissed as hell at the alien, and wanting revenge. He gets that near the end of the issue, as he ends up beating the crap out of the alien (Making his return to the shocked faces of the other X-Men, as Kitty phases him up through the floor at a pivotal moment in the team's fight with Ord and BeneTech's guards), and looks to perhaps kill him, before Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D (Along with the mysterious Agent Brand) suddenly bust in and surround the team. This sets up the big explanation/finale of this first arc in the next issue, but I would be remiss if I didn't mention the other major events of this issue. One would be the condition of the former mutant Wing, who was "cured" by Ord last issue. He is healed from his fall, but facing a future without being able to fly again. This will send him into a deep depression, which will lead to the rising of the next arc's villain, but I'll get to all that in a few issues. Needless to say, it definitely demonstrates that not all mutants are as eager for Dr. Rao's cure as Beast was a few issues ago. The other major event is the heart to heart that happens between Kitty and Pitor, before she phases him back up and into the heat of battle. This is where we get the confirmation that this isn't a case of Pitor being a clone, robot, or alternate reality version of Colossus; he is the real Colossus, and his return adds a lot to this new team of X-Men. We'll definitely see this in major practice in the next few issues, including an old favorite fight technique involving Pitor and Logan from back in the day. GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 13, 2017 22:32:08 GMT -5
Astonishing X-Men #6"Gifted (Part 6)"Cover Date: December, 2004 Writer: Joss Whedon Artist: John Cassaday Team: Cyclops, Emma Frost, Wolverine, Kitty Pryde, Lockheed, Colossus, and Beast Villain/s: Ord Guest Stars: Dr. Kavita Rao, Tilde Soames, Agent Brand/S.W.O.R.D, & S.H.I.L.D/Nick Fury Official Plot: Surrounded by armed SHIELD troops, the X-Men choose to reason with Fury, explaining that they have discovered that Fury’s ally, Ord of the Breakworld, was experimenting on the resurrected Piotr Rasputin in order to create the “cure.” Questioned by Fury, Special Agent Brand, director of SHIELD’s extra-terrestrial directive-driven counterpart, SWORD, confirms. Ord is from a planet called the Breakworld, which possesses technology to see glimpses of the future. In one glimpse, they saw that an Earth mutant – possibly an X-Man - destroys their planet in their lifetime. SWORD entered into an agreement with Ord and the Breakworld to create a cure for mutation – in lieu of an alien invasion. SWORD and Ord had enlisted the aid of Dr. Kavita Rao, using DNA from the Breakworld resuscitated Colossus to create it. As Brand continues her explanation, rioting mutants, incensed by a possibility of a cure, break into Benetech, scattering the SHIELD agents. In the confusion, Ord sneaks away to his spacecraft. As he rockets away, with the cure formula, Colossus manages to launch Wolverine to the ship via a Fastball Special, and Wolverine manages to makes Ord land. The situation diffused, Fury suggests they walk away and act like the incident never happened. Having no way to object, the X-Men comply. Back at the Institute, the X-Men take stock of their situation. The Beast is still torn by the cure, of which he possesses the last sample, though he will not take it – for now. Taking a little private time, Kitty and Piotr ponder the meaning of finding each other again. Meanwhile, Emma and an unseen cohort ponder how, if at all, Colossus’ return changes their plan. Brodie's View:The first story arc of Joss Whedon's run comes to an end, and boy does it end with a bang, both in an action sense, and in the sense of a major bombshell being dropped. A bombshell that will set the stage in many ways for the rest of the run, and that is the reasoning behind Ord being here and wanting rid of all mutants. Evidently, someone on Ord's planet (Known only as The Breakworld) has the ability to see into the future, and they have seen the Breakworld being destroyed by an Earth born mutant. This, in a style both typical of Chris Claremont and Whedon himself, gives the villain a somewhat noble and understandable purpose, rather than just being your typical, mustache twirling baddie. Of course, once we see what life is like on The Breakworld, it'll make Ord's mission look a little less noble, but that's not for a good ten issues, so, we'll let that lie for now. However, I will say that another thing that tarnishes Ord's nobility is what he does the second he has to make a break for it (As a group of cure seeking mutants suddenly bust into BeneTech, causing both S.H.I.E.L.D (And Agent Brand, but we'll get back to her in a second) and the X-Men to become distracted), as he kidnaps Tilde Soames (The little girl who had been cured of her deadly mutant ability), steals the mutant cure, and tries to run away to fight another day. However, Colossus doesn't give him that chance, as he old school Fastball Specials Wolverine up to Ord's craft, and Logan forces Ord (By jabbing his fist into the alien's mouth, and threatening to SNIKT) to land, thus ending the first major conflict of this run. That's the major action that takes place, but in what is a very much-ly a Claremont staple, we get quite a few future story/character seeds planted throughout this issue. The most obvious one is the formal introduction of the mysteriously bad ass Agent Brand, who introduces the concept that there is a galactic version of S.H.I.L.D, and that she is basically IT'S Nick Fury. She then goes on to lay out the whole "A mutant will destroy the Breakworld" prophecy (Which is very much a Joss staple, as there have been many a character in his shows that have had to deal with some sort of mystical prophecy that might or might not come true), which is the reason both S.W.O.R.D and S.H.I.E.L.D were willing to play ball with Ord, as the alternative was The Breakworld destroying Earth. This whole plot kind of fades into the background somewhat for the next several issues, before coming back in a big way in this run's second half, but Brand and S.W.O.R.D (and Ord) play a pretty constant role throughout the run. We also get a small hint at the end of the issue that Emma Frost might not be as much on the side of the angels as she's trying to act, as we see her talking to a mysteriously unseen person about a future agenda that doesn't sound too pleasant for the X-Men, particularly Kitty. However, before we get to all that, we will move into our next arc, which will follow the fallout from young mutant Wing being "cured" at the hands of Ord a couple of issues ago, which as I stated in the last review, will bring about the next major threat the team will have to face. GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 15, 2017 1:02:16 GMT -5
Astonishing X-Men #7"Dangerous (Part 1)"Cover Date: January, 2005 Writer: Joss Whedon Artist: John Cassaday Team: Cyclops, Emma Frost, Wolverine, Kitty Pryde, Colossus, and Beast Villain/s: Danger (Behind the Scenes), The Mole Man (Behind the Scenes), and The Mole Man's Monster Guest Stars: The Fantastic Four, Agent Brand/S.W.O.R.D, Wing, Armor, Blindfold (1st Appearance), and the Stepford Cuckoos Official Plot: The X-Men race to the scene of a gigantic subterranean monster having emerged in Manhattan and begun a wave of destruction. Using their skills as best suits the situation, the X-Men save innocents, or telepathically compel them to move to safety, or use their powers to force the creature back into its hole. The team is soon joined by the Fantastic Four, who combine their powers with the X-Men, forcing the monster into the hole from which it emerged. Returning back to the mansion, the team is dismayed that their heroics played for less than thirty seconds on the news, while a star’s scandal garnered more than three minutes. As the group discusses whether they can ever get a fair shake with the media, one of the students, Hisako, arrives, worried about another missing student, Wing. She is joined by the Stepford Cuckoos and the telepathic Blindfold, who is only able to speak a cryptic warning. Elsewhere, in the Danger Room, Wing lies dead on the floor. Having been in a simulation of the ravine outside the school grounds, he tried to fly – despite having received “the Cure.” With his death, the simulation ends. Elsewhere, Special Agent Brand faces an inquiry into her recent action before a S.W.O.R.D. committee. Rather than apologetic, she states that she regrets nothing and would go to any means to safeguard the planet. She awaits their judgment. Brodie's View:The X-Men are oblivious to the various threats around them, as they are too busy dealing with both the fallout from what has happened in the last few issues (And a giant monster). That is the story of this issue, as they don't see/deal with Wing's depression at having been "cured" by Ord a few issues ago, which the villain of this arc takes advantage of in this one. They also don't see, as it would be impossible to see, Agent Brand answering the S.W.O.R.D committee concerning her actions concerning Ord, The Breakworld, and the Mutant Cure. She basically takes the hard ass approach, and tells the committee to kiss her ass, as she will do whatever she has to do to save the planet. Obviously, we will eventually see her put that to the test before this run is over, but for now, we leave it at that. No, the main action of this issue deals with the X-Men fighting a giant monster that has come from down beneath Manhattan (We later find out, one of the Mole Man's creatures, that the FF villain obviously sent to wreak havok); a battle that eventually brings the actual Fantastic Four into the fray, in a great little guest appearance. So great that it actually makes me wish Joss and John would have re-teamed for a Fantastic Four run after this run ended, as they did a great job with the "First Family" of Marvel. The mutants hope that the double whammy of fighting a giant monster and working alongside such a beloved group will spin some positive press for the team, only to find that it basically gets nothing more than a slight mention. To add to all of this, we get Kitty and Colossus trying to deal with their unspoken feelings for each other. However, with all that being said, the main thrust of this issue goes back to Wing, who tries to deal with no longer being able to fly, as he sits on what appears to be a cliff (The cliff Pitor broke up with Kitty on in #183 perhaps?). He tries to complain/vent to what appears to be his friend and fellow mutant, Hisako, who will later become known as Armor, as she has the ability to manifest an armored exo-skeleton, who basically states that if he had any balls, he'd jump, which he does. However, no longer being a mutant, he falls to his death, which basically reveals that he was never outside at all, but rather in a Danger Room simulation, which definitely has some ominous implications. I will say, however, that this arc, and where it goes, definitely has its detractors. In fact, this arc, and the Giant Bullet (Which comes into play in the last couple of issues of this run) are the two things that are usually brought up as examples as to why Joss' run "sucked," which is bullshit IMO, but everybody is entitled to their opinion, so..... That being said, I will say that how this arc plays out kind of demonstrates that Joss pretty much skipped from the late 80's to the early 2000's, as far as continuity goes. As we go through the next 2-3 issues, I'll explain exactly why I think this arc in particular is seen as being the weakest of the four, and while why I will partially agree with that statement, I will also say that it does still have some kick ass moments, and is pretty far from being "terrible." In the next issue, things go to shit really quick in the wake of Wing's death, and the team slowly put together who, or what, is responsible for what is happening. GRADE: A-
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